is not just an ordinary potato

Menu

Tag Archives: school life

I can’t believe it’s almost the end of the year and I’ve only got three posts on 2015. As of now, I will try my best to post as many as possible before the year changes. This time I publish a movie review that has been in the dungeon for two years, lol. I don’t know why I wrote this post but never finish it. For those who don’t really take time to watch dramas, I present to you a movie review. To be exact, a Japanese movie: Kimi ni Todoke.

Kimi ni todoke: The poster

This is not a recent movie (2010) and I watched this long ago, probably 2011? I remember this movie as something sweet, light and feel-good, the kind where you don’t really have to think about it. But I really like it, and here’s why. Let’s start from the story.

Kuronuma Sawako (Tabe Mikako) is known as Sadako in her school, rumor has it those who look her in the eyes for three seconds would be cursed. In fact, she is just a shy and quiet girl who happens to have Sadako-like long hair. In contrast to her personality, there we have the popular guy, Kazehaya Shota (Miura Haruma). He is a bright and attractive person (like any popular guy in manga, is really good in everything, lol). Sawako admires him too, and things about to change when on one fine day Kazehaya talks to her.

Really, Sawako?

Kimi ni Todoke translated as From Me to You, the famous tagline would be “When will it reach you? My feelings for you”. It’s pointing to Kazehaya’s feelings toward Sawako who oblivious to that fact. But if we look closer, it’s actually more about relationships in general, between friends, family and someone you like. Sawako has hard time expressing her feelings so that’s why the rumors keep going and she stays lonely until Kazehaya comes to the picture. Even for those who have no problems expressing, sometimes they don’t really have the guts to say things to other people, so I think that’s the main message of this movie. To just say it. Kazehaya phrased it better:

“A pass won’t be received well by others if you don’t seriously think for it to reach them” – Kazehaya Shota

This is such a simple story, it could be typical (or is it typical? What is typical anyway? lol). A popular guy in love with the ordinary-to-outcast girl. But, what I really like about it is the characters, especially the girl lead, Sawako. She’s not whiny, she’s honest and straightforward. She’s a delicate, naive and very kind person but actually really strong. Not the strong kind like Tsukushi in Hana Yori Dango or Hina in Pen-bro, but still strong. I mean, she endured all those years being called Sadako, yet she feels bad that she can’t summon ghosts when people expected her to be (since she’s Sadako) in the courage test. The development of her character is so nice to see. Usually, I can’t stand seeing a mediocre female protagonist got the best guy at school, but in Kimi ni todoke, I feel like the guy is actually the lucky one for getting Sawako, lol. She’s so precious.

Kazehaya is by no means bad, but we don’t really need many explanations about his character. He is popular since he’s handsome, smart, athletic and nice with everyone. A really likable person you may say. Him and Sawako had me saying cute over and over again.

Friendship parts the movie bring actually tug my heart string more than the love lines. I can feel the genuine feelings between Sawako and her new-found friends, it actually teared me up in some scenes. I found the truth in this saying so much. most of the times it just happens, being a classmate then friend to best friend.

Chizu – Sawako – Ayane

“Being friends, even before you noticed, it’s happened. We become friends already” – Yoshida Chizuru.

Taken from a popular manga, there’d be differences and comparison. But I think they did a good job considering I can still get the message and feeling the warmth of this story. How feel-good the movie is how there’s no really bad person. This is totally a happy ending kind of movie where everybody turns to be a better person at the end of the day. Everything happens quite fast too, no unnecessary drama included. With that I concluded all the reasons why I love Kimi ni todoke :).